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ENTHUSED OVER party’s victory in Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, BSP activists on Friday took out a rally from party’s State headquarters at 74 Bungalows. The rally passed through different areas of the City before culminating at the residence of party State president Bhujbal Singh Ahirwar. Participants in the rally stopped at the statue of Babasaheb Ambedkar at Board Office Square, Tulsi Nagar and Lily Talkies to pay their obeisance to the Dalit leader.
 
A visibly elated Ahirwar told the Hindustan Times that the charisma of party supremo Mayawati and her ability to take all sections of the society along had resulted in an unprecedented victory for the party. He said upper castes, particularly Brahmins, voted for the party overwhelmingly because they were mistreated by leaders from their own community. During her 14-month stint as chief minister earlier, Mayawati had taken a lot of decisions for the welfare of all sections of society. Mulayam Singh’s patronage to anti-social elements also led to his downfall, he said.

Ahirwar claimed that in the next Assembly election in MP, the party would emerge as a key player and, even if it does not get a clear majority, it would ensure that no party is able to form the government without its support. The BJP Government’s failure to live up to its electoral promises would see its ouster from power, he said.

Samajwadi Party MLA and party national secretary Dr Sunilam said  although the party had lost yet it’s the numbers of eats it won were twice the BJP and four times that of Congress. The party is happy that despite the Nehru-Gandhi family coming out in full force, the Congress could win only 22 seats. He alleged that the Election Commission had worked as a ‘machinery’ of the Congress.

As for the BSP, he said the party would set record in looting government coffers as most candidates paid Rs 25 lakh to two crore to get tickets and that the contradictory agenda of cobbling Brahmins and Dalits together would be the undoing of the government.

State BJP spokesperson Umashankar Gupta said people’s verdict should be honoured. People of Uttar Pradesh were angry with the Samjwadi Party’s misrule and perhaps they thought that Mayawati would be the best person to rid them of Mulayam Singh Yadav’s ‘gunda raj’. He, however, denied that election results in UP would have any impact in Madhya Pradesh politics.  

State Congress spokesperson Brijmohan Shrivastava said the party accepted  people’s verdict and would play the role of an able opposition.